The June 2011 emergency preparedness goal for the Do1Thing website is about making families more disaster resilient by planning for the unique needs of each family.

Every household and farm family is different. Each is
different because there may be an infant or child in the home or because there
may be someone in the family who requires regular schedule of medication or has
a disability. There may be a pet or two or three living in the home. What would
happen in that home if a disaster struck and the family was required to
evacuate to a shelter or shelter in isolation at home for several days? If
there was no preplanning or preparation, much time and energy will likely be
used attempting to address the needs of these family members in the days
following the emergency. To provide guidance on planning for special family
needs, Do1Thing.com has targeted “Unique Family Needs” as the preparedness goal for
June 2011. Farm life is hectic under normal situations; in the rush to respond
or cope following a disaster, there will be many competing needs to be
addressed. Preparing and preplanning can complete some of the most important of
these needs before the rush to respond arrives.

Emergency management experts advise that preparedness
planning should be based on being independent of public services for a minimum
of 72 hours following a disaster. In that post-disaster period many products
and services we count on in our “just in time” world may not be available. For
instance, pet food or diapers may not be readily available. The availability of
some medicines could be limited locally, as well. One of the first steps to
preparedness is to work to identify what special needs your family has. Things
to consider as unique needs may include: the presence of infants or young
children in the home, residents with prescription medications or health related
supplies (such as syringes, glucometer supplies or CPAP Machine), family
members who require assistive equipment such as canes or walkers and the
presence of pets in the home.

Once family needs are identified, what can be done? For
supplies like diapers or medications, these can be stockpiled to assure a 72-hour
supply and stored with the family “Go
Bag”. Pets, on the other hand, present a different set of obstacles. They
are not allowed into public shelters; however, because of the PETS Act of 2006, emergency planning guidelines are in place for
providing rescue, care, shelter, and essential needs for individuals with
household pets and service animals, and to the household pets and animals
themselves following a major disaster or emergency. Check locally with
emergency planning authorities to determine what planning may have taken place
to include pets in sheltering plans. Also consider what might happen if you are
not able to return home if the emergency trapped you out of the house. It is
also considered smart to assemble a PET GO KIT containing food, supplies, toys,
vaccination records and any medications used by your pets. This kit can be
stored, ready to be loaded up and go. This reduces the time and effort required
to pull together supplies when you may only have minutes to leave home.

Finally, and potentially most importantly, we need to
remember the needs of family members who have a disability or lack mobility. These
family members are more affected by disaster and loss of services than others. For
example, the local accessibility services that might normally be available for
transporting those who lack mobility may not be there to help. A
disaster-caused break in transportation services may require that alternative
evacuation plans for the effected family member be developed. The first step is
to contact local paratransit services and discuss their plan for servicing the
community during a disaster. Also contact the Red Cross in your community. As
the local shelter provider, Red Cross wants to be aware of any special
requirements of residents in their area. If a service animal is going to be
involved, can they handle that situation? What medical or support supplies will
be available at the shelter? Any that are not available, will need to be packed
in your emergency “Go Bag”.

Responsibility for family safety and security can be
difficult during a disaster. Add to that the responsibility for preparing or
managing a farm business and the burden can become an overwhelming. To reduce
the potential for bearing such a burden, preparedness planning which assesses
and builds family resiliency by addressing the unique needs of your family
needs to be completed.

The Do1Thing website is dedicated to providing a monthly
opportunity for improving personal and family preparedness.

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